HOLDERS Team Solent will be back at St Mary’s for a third successive season in the Southampton Senior Cup final.

By manager James Taylor’s own admission, his Southampton Solent University side were not at their best in last night’s semi-final against Hamble Club Reserves at Sholing's Universal Stadium.

Having had Jemal Wiseman’s sublime 26th-minute strike wiped out by Gerson Ramos’s equally impressive leveller, Solent were taken to extra time by the Monks’ second string and it was Silvano Obeng who fired them through, 2-1, with a well-worked winner.

Taylor said: “It wasn’t a great performance, but the main thing is we’re through.

“It’s pretty special to get to St Mary’s three times in a row and, having won it twice, a hat-trick would be even more special.

“We’re having a bit of a tough time with injuries and we’ve got a few walking wounded at the moment. We’re not playing particularly well.

“Going out of the FA Vase (5-2 to South Shields) was a bit of a blow and the lads were certainly disappointed.

“Injuries and tiredness haven’t helped where we’ve got so many games.

“We’re still in two cups (the Southampton Senior and Sydenhams Wessex) and we’ve got games every midweek from now until the end of the season. There are University games as well, so the lads are playing a lot of football and it’s starting to show.”

Hamble Club were rightly proud of their second string, tweeting: "Everyone, bar the reserves themselves, wrote them off. They competed and matched Solent for long periods of time, immense credit to the lads!"

The other SSC semi-final between Sholing and Brockenhurst will be played next Thursday (March 9, 7.45pm) at Folland Sports FC.

Solent’s next goal is to address their flagging league form that has left them without a win in three.

They have slipped to eighth, level on points with Saturday's Test Park visitors Lymington Town – albeit that the Students have five games in hand.

*THE gap between Sydenhams Premier leaders Moneyfields and chasing Blackfield & Langley is back to ten points.

Having seen Moneys beat Cowes Sports 2-0 on Tuesday, Blackfield won by an identical scoreline at rock-bottom Verwood Town last night.

Luke Winsper broke the deadlock on 49 minutes following a surging run by Liam Robinson and ex-Saint Jamie White struck with a stoppage-time penalty to boost his season's goal tally to 34.